We Need To Light Up The Night...

I love lanterns. I think they’re absolutely fantastic in every way. They’re such a beautiful method of lighting up the night rather than the streetlights outside or the fluorescent lights in the community center. I think next time I’ll have to put up photos of exactly WHERE my wedding will be so that everyone reading this can begin to fully understand the little utopia I’ll be sending them to. But that’s next time, Ladies and Gentlemen… this time is going to be about lanterns. I mean, just look how beautiful this is…

You know, the lanterns in this photo are absolutely beautiful with the umbrella and the people gathered around, but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the SECOND best thing about this picture would be the big old guy in the bottom right.  He seems like the kind of guy who would just randomly yell at people to bring him beer and spare ribs.  I wonder if we're related...

Other than my beautiful lanterns I've also decided to light up the dance floor with mason jars. Matt's mom, Sherri, was fantastic enough to give me a TON of her mother's old mason jars.  When we brought them back from Missouri all I had to do was wash them (since they had gotten just a little dusty from not being used).

 See?  I told you she gave me a bunch.  And some of them are so cool looking...

I'm going to try and find something extra cool for that guy.  I know that I'll use some of them from candles and hang them around like this...

And maybe set a few on the tables like this...

But I had never really thought about using them in a different way until I saw this picture...

First, I love love love peonies and have been kicking around the idea of having them in my bouquet for quite sometime now. I mean, they're HUGE so you'd really only need a few, right? Second, how cute is this to have flowers hanging from trees. I'm not a big "floral arrangement on the table" person so this could be a cool way to have some flowers around. I’ll have to do a post on centerpieces sometime because those are DEFINITELY a work in progress.   Much like the rest of my wedding...

You've Got To Have A Pretty Lure To Get The Best Fish...

Today I thought I’d spice it up and talk about something other than food for a post. Because you know for a fact that the majority of my posts will be about food. Just stating the facts. I think this post is going to be about my invites. I love them like crazy and I have my friend Mrs. Gerstenschlager to thank for the base of my ideas. I know what you’re thinking and yes I agree that her last name is amazing. It must take her a full 20 minutes to sign her checks. Anyway, here are a few invites I loved but just couldn’t settle on.  Again, if these are yours let me know and I'll give you the credit.  The first was one sent to me by Mrs. G because my fiance proposed to me by carving "Ashlee, will you marry me?" into a wooden bridge.  I know... he's fantastic.

I think it's so adorable and it really kind of ties in his proposal, but it wasn't exactly what I was looking for. I could just see my grandparents getting the invite and wondering just what in the hell it was. Or using it as a coaster. Either one.  Onto another super cute idea...

or

True these are technically Save the Date cards, but I figured I could tweak it a bit and have a pretty kickin' invite. It's simple. It's adorable. I love it, but it really doesn't mesh with the rest of my wedding planning. Unless I want a carnival themed wedding. Which would be amazing. I have tons of pictures for that saved on my computer, but I thought it might be a little TOO weird. Maybe I'll post those next time. The suspense must be KILLING you guys. Right. Now onto where my final invite got inspiration. I found this one somewhere on the internet and for the life of me I have no clue where it was. So sad. At any rate it's so fantastic. I love the colors and I love how simple it is.

Amazing... I know.  We're planning of having our dance outside under the stars with lights strung up everywhere, so this invite would have been perfect for that.  I almost ordered it and had pretty much decided that we would use this one (if I could ever find it back) when my amazing Mrs. G sent me this one...

Because Matty carved my proposal into wood this was almost perfect for an invite. I love how the tree is just an outline and the sweet carvings on its trunk. We aren't having RSVP cards *another gasp* because we pretty much know who's going to make it and who might not. We've decided to set up an e-mail address instead and print it on the invite. Who knows if it's going to work. It could be fantastic or it could be a massive disaster. I'll let you know which one! Back to the invites, I ended up sketching out this beauty for our final choice...

Now, I realize this isn't the best picture, but it's good enough to give you a general idea.  I combined the amazing tree with some of the lights from the other invite and if you look to the left of the trunk you can see a small figure that, I'm not going to lie, is Chowder our dog... with her tennis ball.  She was there when he proposed and she's the coolest dog ever so it was only right to put her on there.  I couldn't be happier with this invite if I tried.  I even love the wavy lines on the side.  When it comes to the writing, the rest of the invite will be similar to the other tree invite.  I think it's such a simple and sweet invitation and I love how it fits both the proposal and the wedding.  Now if I could just find some place to print them off...